Don’t be in such a “rush”….

A while ago I bought this little rush chair…. I was thinking maybe it would be a cute planter.

Then last week I came across it buried under a bunch of other things and thought, Hmm… I just bet I can teach myself to fix this. So off I went to the local Woodworkers shop to buy fabric rush (which is a deceptive name, I am pretty convinced it’s made of kraft paper).

First thing I did was pull off the old rushing. I started to unweave it thinking I could figure out the pattern as I went backwards… Yea, that was absurd. So I just used my tin snips and cut it off- WAY faster.

then I had this:

In that, there was this to contend with:

(Remember this picture later…) So I used needle nose pliers and a claw hammer to remove all the tacks. Then I gave it a quick sand, painted it Shabby Paints White Ice, distressed and sealed it with VAX (no pictures, I’m a jerk).

Rush comes in rolled lengths of 100-150 feet- that’s way too long to work with, so you cut it into sections of 30 feet. Then you give it a quick dip in warm water for about 12-15 seconds and then start working… I started and then realized that the seat was not a square so there was probably some way I was supposed to adapt for that… Sigh.. there was. Remember all that weirdness with multiple nails? Yea, I had to do that again… so I unwound everything I had done, and started again. (and forgot to take pictures)

When I was done, it looked like this:

It’s not perfect, but what handmade item is? It’s certainly useable as an actual chair now and so hopefully that counts for something? If you’re wondering, I used this link to teach myself how to weave it.

Don’t be afraid to try something new.. and screw it up… because in messing up, I learned how NOT to rush chairs, was reminded I should read instructions all the way through before I start… and I learned a new skill too! Hooray!!

Do you think you could give this a try?

XO!

~Scottie